Misplaced Magic
by Rorysdog
Summary: A pure-blood child is swapped at birth with a muggle by accident. The pure-blood is sent to Hogwarts thinking they are Muggle-born while Death Eaters control the school. The Muggle born lives thinking themselves a squib. T for possible Scenes. R&R! :
1. Strange Happenings at Chesney Wold

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potters. :(

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Chapter 1: Strange happenings at Chesney Wold

Sharon was abruptly awoken. She wasn't sure of the time, or of why she had woken, though - if the absence of light coming through the curtains was anything to judge by- she was pretty sure it was sometime at night.

She slowly sat up in her bed, turned on her bedside lamp, and looked around. Her room _looked_ the same. She spent around 5 minutes sitting there trying to figure out what had happened, when she decided sleep was more important, and slowly went back to sleep.

It was the summer holidays, so in the morning she woke up later than she probably should've, walked downstairs, got a bowl of cereal and sat down in front of the TV in the living room. She was watching the news about some killings in London, but the police couldn't find any indication of how they had died. Typical.

She flicked through the channels, not really interested with what was on when her dad came in the room. He wasn't a particularly nervous or shy man, but there was something about the way he came in the room that told her that something was wrong, or rather, not quite so right, as he liked to say.

"We…" He started before trailing off, "We.. Need to talk."  
"What's this about?" she replied, eyeing her dad nervously.  
"Oh, I'll explain in a moment, could you come up to my office when you're done watching that?" He asked her this whilst looking at the television, his expression turning quizzical when he saw that she was watching one of the shopping channels.

Hastily turning off the TV and leaving her empty bowl on the kitchen side, she went upstairs, to the furthest room on the right, opposite the bathroom, to her father's study. She slowly opened the door, he turned round and said "Ahh. There you are. Come right in, take a seat." Whilst saying this he extended his hand towards a seat he usually kept folders and loose paper on, but had obviously cleaned for her to sit on.

She took her seat, then looked up at him. "What's this about?" She repeated, worry worming it's way into her voice. If she didn't know better, he was going to tell her off for doing some horrible thing, though she couldn't think of anything.

"This may sound strange, Sharon, but… but…"  
"But what, dad?"  
"You're.. You're a .. W-witch." He stuttered the last phrase, as if unsure of himself, then let out a sigh and gave a weak smile.  
"What do you mean? Of course I'm not a witch… am I?"As she mumbled the end of her sentence feebly, her father slipped an old-looking envelope towards her. The paper looked brown and worn, and there was a wax seal on it. The seal had a badger, a lion, an eagle and a snake. She opened the letter slightly, and looked at the signature,

_Severus Snape,_

_Headmaster of Hogwarts school for Witchcraft and Wizardry_

She read through the letter again. And again, and another time after couldn't believe it.

Her? A witch? Never! She didn't have a black cat and have a pointy nose with a big wart on the end! She didn't turn people into toads and eat them for dinner!

But yet, they had explained it. It was on April the fourth, this very same year. She'd performed magic, and she could remember something very strange indeed happening on that day.

She'd been playing with her friend, and they'd been playing catch. She kept catching the ball, even though it was much to far away for her to reach. There was once where she saw it definitely change direction in the air to reach her outstretched hand. She'd found it amazing. Her friend, on the other hand, found it incredibly unfair. Sure, Sharon could always catch the ball, but she was no good at throwing. She once even managed to get it stuck on the roof of a neighbours house, and they had to get him to climb up and get it for that, she hadn't seen any inkling of magic. Sure, she remembered being really lucky when she was younger, but surely that can't have been **magic**. Surely.

She spent the next few days walking around the house, pointing at things, trying to make some kind of magic happen. It never worked, though she never stopped trying, always reading her letter through, picking up some phrases while she went, "_Your Blood Status will be devised once you reach the school.", "You will be escorted by Minerva McGonagall to Diagon Alley within the week", "Please respond to this letter by telling Professor McGonagall of your decision when she arrives." _

It was on a Thursday in early August that Sharon was woken by her mother and told to get dressed and presentable.

"Wha… Why?" Sharon asked groggily, unsure of why her mother looked so frazzled.  
"There is someone at the door for you. **Very **strangely dressed."

Sharon was almost certain this was the "Minerva McGonagall" that the letter spoke of. She was dressed in almost the amount of time it took for her mother to go downstairs.

Of course, her and her father had discussed Hogwarts, whether she should take up the offer or not, how mum would react.

She walked downstairs to find a woman in a long black robe and a slightly crumpled witches that someone had descended the stairs, she turned round.

"You must be Sharon." She said with a smile.


	2. Squib Alert!

I don't own the Harry Potters :(

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Chapter 2: "Squib Alert!"

Syrill slowly roused, but when he realised what day it was he was up and ready before you could shout "Bogey flavoured beans!"  
He'd been expecting the letter to arrive for days, and though it was the last official date it was supposed to arrive, he was going to be lenient, just in case the owl got lost. That was it.  
He soon found out he would need to use his theory, and when he got downstairs to check the Owl post, he noticed many letters, none of which bearing the tell-tale symbol of Hogwarts.  
He sulkily got out some bowls, tried magicking the milk to the table, failed and had to take it _manually._ After what seemed an age, his mother appeared, ready to begin preparations for her husband and three sons.

"No luck?" She inquired, after seeing the sour, puffy-eyed boy.

"Nope." He replied sulkily.

"I'm sure it'll come, though, right?" His mother asked, looking hopeful.

"Maybe." He said this last remark almost scathingly, then stalked off back upstairs into his bedroom.

After a few hours of calming himself, Syrill went downstairs to eat some food, perhaps cheer himself up a little, and who knows, maybe the owl _was_ late. Again, this was proven to be false, the fall only being made worse by his two older brothers, both of which enjoying the increasing strain their brother was under every day that passed without a letter. They, however, had already received theirs a week ago, so they taunted to their hearts content.

"Squib Alert"  
"Nee-Naw! Nee-Naw!"  
"Hey, wizar- oh, sorry, I thought you were a wizard."  
"You still going strong Squib-a-dib?"

Many minutes were passed with Syrill slowly and calmly nibbling away at his breakfast, though he didn't really feel like eating, and every insult they threw only made him want to throw his breakfast over them more and more.

When their mother entered the room, however, they stopped taunting immediately."Come on, Sy, eat it up, be a good boy." This led to more snickering by the boys, but was quelled by a stern look from their mother.

Mother made some sort of signal, because both boys left the room, leaving Syrill alone with his mother.

"It must be hard, I kno-"  
"You DON'T KNOW!" Syrill shouted vehemently, almost foaming at the lips. "How could you EVER KNOW!"

"Syrill, calm down."  
"It's not going to make a difference, I'm still a damn squib!"  
"Sy, that doesn't change anything. My best friend when I was your age was a squib, and she was my world back then."  
"She… huh?" Syrill was stunned by this remark, mostly because he had never bothered to ask about her childhood, but also that his mother, his own **mother**, would befriend a squib.  
"It's nothing to be ashamed of Sy, there are thousands out there.""But there are _millions_ of _Wizards_." He stated bluntly. "And I'll never be one of them."  
"You don't **need** to be one of them, Sy. They're no better than you."  
"I wish everyone else though that. It's not fair."  
"I'm sorry, Sy, but life _isn't fair."_  
"Hmph."

And with that, he got up, turned on his heel, and left the room.

After more and more days like this, Syrill gave up that little glimmer of hope that he was indeed a wizard, and tried to think about ways in which he could go about living as a Squib.  
What was it Squibs did?  
And it hit him.

He was, for all extents and purposes, a muggle in wizards clothing.  
A muggle.  
A muggle?  
Never.  
No, he couldn't be.  
This was a blow unlike any he had sustained before in his life, not one that made him cry out in pain, but one that crippled him. Throughout that day, in which the rest of his family were out, his brothers and mother gone to buy supplies for Hogwarts, deciding that waiting for Syrill's letter was a hopeless case, his father working for Muggle Protection in the Improper Use of Magic in the ministry, he couldn't tear his mind away from this terrible thought.  
He couldn't be.  
Never.  
Never?

He brushed through his light brown hair, noting that he was in need of a short trim, because his hair was getting on the untidy side.

Then he decided that if he was going to live his life akin to that of a muggle's, he would need to find out what they did all day. He put some clothes that he thought looked like what muggle children wore on, wrote a quick note to his parents, and then set out the door, heading for the town centre, the fields, anywhere.

He needed to find **someone.**


	3. Diagonally? That's not a place!

I don't own the harry potters. :(  
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Chapter 3: "Diagonally? That's not a place!"

Sharon brushed heir raven black hair away from her face, looking up at a dingy,dilapidated inn.  
"The Leaky Cauldron? Sounds like a horrible place."  
"Ahh, but this is just the entrance." the witch replied, smiling down at the girl.  
They entered, and Sharon looked around, wondering if all wizard places were like this. The whole of the inn was in semi-darkness, with a smoky haze further impeding any hope of sight in this place. There were shifty looking people with long clothes, the closest type of clothing she could match it to was a long dressing gown, but it didn't look thick. There were groupings of people that looked as if they were dealing with things not for the faint-hearted, and she was sure she heard the wail of an animal from one such gathering.  
Mrs McGonagall led her to the back of the pub, then out of a back door, to what looked like a brick wall. She proceeded to tap on the bircks in what seemed like a random order, but it was probably a code of some sort.  
After doing this, the brick wall began to, well, sort of loosen it's bricks to reveal an opening.

"Welcome, to Diagon Alley."  
"Wait, what?"  
"I said, welcome to Diagon Alley."McGonagall repeated calmly.  
"Diagonally? That's not a place!"  
"Oh but my dear girl, you are standing in said place."McGonagall said matter-of-factly.  
Sharon mumbled, but didn't want to contradict what appeared to be common knowledge.  
"Now, lets get you off to Olivanders, a wand's your first priority."  
"Why do i need a wand?"  
"Witches and wizards use wands to perform their magic. It's reffered to as wandlore."  
"But, i thought they could just perform magic with their hands?"  
"You've probably been watching too much muggle propaganda. Did they also trap princesses and turn people into frogs, newts?"  
"Well… yeah." Sharon replied sheepishly. She should've known that _real_ witches and wizards weren't the same as cartoons.

They continued the walk down to Olivanders in silence, with Sharon admiring all the shop fronts;  
Flourish and Blotts, what looked like a book shop.  
Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes, a joke shop for wizards.  
Bernies Owl Emporium, a pet store that seemed devoted to owls.  
A Sweep A Day, a shop that seemed to seel floating brooms.

When they entered Olivanders, Mrs McGonagall seemed shocked.  
A grizzly man with a scar down the right side of his face, with shaggy black hair looked at them and grunted,  
"Wachta want?"  
"Umm… where is Mr. Olivander?" McGonagall asked nervously.  
"People say he was taken by the ministry for questioning, something to do with blood status, rumour has it."  
"Okay." McGonagall seemed extremely uncoumfortable and looked as if all she wanted to do was run away, but she continued,  
"I'm looking for a wand for this young girl." Pushing Sharon forward.

"Y-y-yes sssir, I n-need a w-w-wand. i t-th-think."  
At this, the man smiled, "O'course, lovey, now by the looks o' cha, i'd say 7 inch, cedar, eagle feather. Back in a jiffy." He then promptly scanned through box after box, of a pile which seemed to reach the ceiling.

"Here ya go, try this one." He said, giving her a slim carved, light brown wand. It felt strange in her hands, and it was a little too small, with what she supposed was the grip being just a little on the short side.  
"Go on then, give 'er a flick!" The man encouraged.  
She slowly gave the wand a flick, but with that, she managed to disshelve a pile of books.  
"Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!" She cried.  
"It's all righ' lass, i'm used to it. Now, that looked a llittle small, lets try a 9 inch, oak, hipogriff core." He said this whilst reshelving the displaced books.  
She placed the faulty wand on the counter in front of her, and watched him set to work once more.

After many unsuccessful tries, she came out of Olivanders the proud owner of a 8 1/2 inch, beech, dragonheart core wand. Once they had left the shop, Mrs McGonagall turned round and warned her.  
"You shouldn't use this wand willy-nilly. There is a "Trace" on you, so if you perfom spells upon people outside of school, you will be arrested by ministry officials, and trust me, that's not something you want."  
Sharon grumbled her acceptance of this fact. Unfair, you get magic but you're not _allowed_ to use it? What's the point in having it then?

Before she could get too deep into her own thoughts, they had entered Flourish and Blotts and were looking through the transfiguration section. McGonagall seemed to know exactly which books she did and didn't need, and even suggested some extra reading on transfiguration, but Sharon guessed it was probably because she had something to do with the subject.

They then went on to the "Robe" shop, and once Sharon entered, she realized this was what everyone appeared to be wearing. "Robes", a very strange word to her. She met up with one of the shop assistants who helped fit her for her new robes. McGonagall was explaining something about houses, something to do with a gryffin, but she wasn't really listening, but was more focused on how they were making the robes. They seemed to be stitching themselves!

Once she left the robe shop, there was only a few more things to do, firstly, she needed a pewter cauldron (one of the few things she recognized a witch needed.) and a cat, owl or toad. She looked through the cauldron shop, but with little enthusiasm, she didn't think she would enjoy potion-making.

However, when she arrived in the owl emporium, she could've spent hours in there for each animal. There were cats there too, and apparently there was a limited offer of something callesd a thestral, but she couldn't see anything, so she went back to the owls. After much toying, she bought a tawny owl called "Scoot".

Mrs McGonagall then explained to her that on August the 31st, she would need to go to platform 9 3/4, to get on the Hogwarts Express, which would take her to hogwarts.  
After taking her back home, she explained to her parents the same, along with written instructions, and left the house.  
The second she shut the door, she was startled by a very very loud noise.  
"YOU'RE A WHAT?! YOU'RE GOING WHERE?!"

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**AN:**

** Hi! c'mon you guys! review? pretty please?**

** i'll give you a cookie, and i'll update super super fast! :D**

** 5 reviews and i'll update :)  
xx**

** Rory**

**For Kim. :)**

**PS: Text Files are the fail. I lost all my capital letters. :'(  
**


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